August 24, 2025 • 39 mins
We’re kicking off Elul by returning to one of our favorite projects—the very first series we ever released on this podcast. This is a recrafted version of Tehillim 27, Part 1—tighter, more accessible, and ready for listening on the go, while still keeping all the depth and heart of the original.
In this episode, we begin exploring the surprising tensions within the psalm: one moment David is standing tall, confident in victory over his enemies; the next, he’s pleading with God for mercy. What’s going on?
If you’re looking for the full textual deep dive, complete with charts, I recommend the essay version linked here.
And stay tuned—Part 2 drops tomorrow.
---
Please consider supporting us at tehillimunveiled.com/support.
We want to hear from YOU at TehillimUnveiled@gmail.com.
Use this link to join our Whatsapp group.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
It's hard to believe, but it's officially been one year since
launching this podcast, and whata year it's been.
The feedback has been inspiring,the audience has been growing,
and along the way we've had the privilege of hosting some of the
biggest names in the world of TANF.
But through all of it, one of myfavorite episodes is still the
(00:23):
very first one. We did our three-part miniseries
on the Hilim Hoff Zion 27. That's Ledavid Hashem Ori, and
with Elle here again, it feels only right to bring it back.
And now we're not just hitting rewind.
That first episode though? Fascinating was also by far the
(00:44):
most textual and complex. Episode we've ever done.
Perfect for learning at a desk, not.
So perfect if you're say. Merging onto the highway.
So what you're listening to now is a completely re edited
version. We trimmed some things down, we
recorded some sections and streamline the structure to make
(01:06):
sure it's something you can enjoy.
Wherever you are. While still keeping the themes,
the heart, and the emotional punch of the original version.
If you're craving the full deep dive, you can scroll back to the
very beginning of this podcast feed and find the original
series there. Or if you'd rather read.
You'll also find an essay version linked to right in the.
Episode Description. Otherwise, buckle up and let's
(01:26):
jump into La David. Welcome to the very first
episode of Tehalem Unveiled. This is Ari Levison.
A number of Jeremy. And today we're going to talk
(01:47):
about the song of the summer. The song goes every summer.
The number one pop hit. It's the Hillam 27 Club Zion,
the David Hashem Ori. We say it every year from
beginning of Rosh Koda Shallow and then continue to cite it
ideally twice a day for the nextalmost two months.
(02:11):
Yeah, I think we end up saying it over 100 times.
No it all. Yeah, it must be it.
Has some really beautiful lines.Probably inspired more songs
than any other Parakov Talem, but how well do we really
understand it? That's all.
What's the progression from verses 1 to 14, right?
What's the overall message? I mean, if I would ask you,
(02:33):
what's the overall message? I would say we want Hashem to
protect us. We want to be close to Hashem.
Hashem is, we say, this sort of stronghold, right?
Hashem is keeping us safe, says David.
And he also says Hashem is my palace where I want to be,
right? That seems to be for me some of
the one of the main. And even those, those seem like
two different things, right? Do I want to just be in God's
palace where I'm basking, beholding his delight like
(02:56):
Lakhzoth, Panama sham? Or am I hiding from my enemies
there like we see in the first few verses?
What about when David says Eviveand me as Avuni, like my parents
have abandoned me? What the heck does David mean
there? I don't remember that part of
the story when David's parents abandoned him.
Yeah, it doesn't come to mind. I think the the answers to these
(03:17):
questions, which we're going to attempt to explore are what make
this mismore into so much more than a collection of beautiful
one liners, bizarre Hashem. I think that our analysis is
going to unveil an incredibly deep and I think really heart
wrenching story. So the plan is this week we're
(03:38):
going to focus on the progression from the beginning
to the end of the Mismar, and they just attempt to understand
it through the broad themes of David's life, say like the first
level, just trying to really understand what this meant
someone was talking about. Next week I want to try to
identify the exact moment in David's life that he may have
written this or that this may bewritten about.
(03:58):
As we said in the intro, it's all about getting into W twos at
a particular place and time. So that's what we're going to
try to do next week. And in the following week, I'm
going to look at intertextual parallels to different stories
from elsewhere in TANF that I think David is thinking about as
he's writing this, and I think he might actually be drawing
strength and inspiration from. So I hope you join us on this
(04:19):
journey. Let's jump in.
Yola. La David, as we said, that's
going to be really. Important, right?
The core is everything that we're about to read has to be
sort of put into David's mouth. Like you're saying, read back
into and against David's life. Yeah.
I think the first step in analyzing any chapter of
(04:41):
Tehillim is to understand just the basic building blocks, the
pieces of it. I think that this chapter really
has three main blocks, and then what I would call like an outro.
So let's start with that first block, the first 3 verses.
Le davida shimuri vishi mimira Hashem mehoushayai of David.
The Lord is my light and my help.
(05:02):
Whom should I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my
life. Whom should I dread?
Bikrova, Lymer EM Lehol. EP Sarai Sarai.
Vo ivaili hamacha schluven afaluWhen evil men assail me to
devour my flesh, it is they, my foes and my enemies who stumble
and fall. Inter Kanea alai mahane lo Yi
(05:23):
rally be Inter Kumalai Milhama bezotta Nevoter.
Should an army besiege me, my heart would have No Fear.
Should war beset me still, wouldI be confident?
Each of these clauses are sayingvery very similar things and
just different language. All right, 2025, Ari jumping in
to move. Things along a bit.
The main thing we need to take away from these first 3 verses
(05:46):
is the image of David as this powerful warrior standing
confidently over his enemies because he knows that God has
got his back. God is his, my, O's, his
stronghold, He, she, my salvation.
Now we're going to circle back to verse 5 to 8 in a minute.
But before that, I actually wantto skip ahead to the third
(06:08):
block, verses 9 through 12, basically the end of the Mizmar.
And here's why. On the surface, these verses
feel really similar to the opening, like we're clearly
meant to compare them. But when we do, we'll realize
that they actually couldn't be more different.
Dhillon clearly wants us to. Compare and.
(06:30):
Contrast the beginning and the end.
Of this Miss Moore. So let's do that now.
Let's put them side by side and see the journey that this Miss
Moore is taking us on. And from there, we'll start to
really appreciate the role that the central part of her Miss
Moore, that middle section, is doing in holding this entire
thing together. Verse 9 and 10 read Altastair
(06:52):
Panettra Mimani, don't hide yourface for me.
Altat AF of the ha. Literally don't turn your
servant in anger. And we'll come back and try to
translate and explain what that means later.
Ezrati hayita, you have been my help.
I'll teach Cheney Altazveny Elohayishi, do not abandon me,
(07:13):
Do not forsake me. O God of my salvation, Ki Aviv
EMI azavuni vadonaya asveny. Because my father and my mother
have forsaken me. But the Lord will take me up.
Notice how this section begins. David calls God ye she, my
salvation. That's the same term we saw back
in the very first verse of the Mizmar.
(07:35):
But wow, what a difference. Back then, David radiated
confidence, unshakable and fearless.
Here he's begging, pleading. Don't abandoned me.
Don't forsake me. What happened?
If you think back to those opening verses, right after
David's declaration of strength,the focus then shifted to his
(07:58):
enemies. There he had No Fear.
His enemies stumbled and fell before him.
But now, Now it's not the enemies who are stumbling.
It's David himself who is afraidthat he's lost the way.
Verse 11 continues. Ho reni adonai dharkefa unafrini
bioref mishor laman shararai. Teach me, O Lord, your way, and
(08:19):
lead me in the right path for the sake of those who watch me.
Instead of the enemies tripping over themselves, David begs God
to study his own steps to keep him on a straight path in spite
of his enemies. And remember how that first
section ended with the enemies rising up Camus against him?
At that point, David didn't blink.
(08:40):
But here in verse 12, the next verse in our second-half is the
same language, the same enemies rising up Kamu.
But this time David seems shakento his core.
Kikamu V Ade shakur via fair Hamas.
Because false witnesses have risen up against me and those
who speak evil. So we're left with this tension.
(09:03):
The Mizmour begins and ends withthe same structure, the same
enemies, even the same language,but it feels like a completely
different world. Something happened in verses 5
through 8, something that shook David to his core.
And that's exactly what we're going to explore today.
Quick favor before we keep going.
(09:24):
If this episode is helping you connect to La David and you're
looking for more, tap the followor subscribe button on whatever
app you're listening on so the next episodes land right in your
feet. OK, back to the central section
of our Miss Moore, the key to understanding the vanishing of
David's confidence. So, so let's let's look at that
middle section now really the pivot of this whole thing.
(09:46):
Remember the first 3 verses, we're all talking about David's
confident successes in war, how his enemies stand no chance
against him. Now, if you know, you just had
to forget everything you know about about this Miss Moore and
just imagine where he's going togo next.
And wiping it clean. Really.
Like what? What would you expect him to say
next? More on this theme.
(10:06):
Right, right, probably more on this theme, like more about his
energy defeating or maybe this would be a good point to like
pivot and you know, thank God for all these things that he
just talked about God doing for him, right, asking for.
It for other people think of allkinds of things.
You'd be pretty crazy to suggestthat David would start talking
about having a chill sesh at God's house.
(10:27):
Right. And yet, that's exactly what he
does. Like all of a sudden, really out
of nowhere, he makes this request.
Hmm, very interesting, right? A hatch ultimate Hashem ottava
kesh shivti bevetashem kohya meshaya.
One thing I ask of the Lord only, that do I seek to live in
(10:47):
the House of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon
the beauty of the Lord, to frequent God's temple?
Why is he making this request out of nowhere?
So I think that the next verse, verse 5, which begins with key
because I think seems to tell uswhere this request is coming
from. Quits Benini Bisuka by Yomra A
Yes, Irene Besetter. Oh, hello, Bitsuya Romani.
(11:10):
God will shelter me in God's pavilion on an evil day.
Grant me the protection of God'stent.
Raise me high upon a rock. Why is it that David wants to
sit in God's house the all the days of his life?
It it really is maybe the stronghold.
Yeah. It really is the place where
where David is safe. David has a certain interest in
(11:31):
sitting there. It's not just that he would get
to be with Hashem, which would be amazing, it also happens to
be this ol of Hashem is also a place that functions as a
stronghold against David's enemies.
Yeah, Before we didn't know how God protected David.
He just said that God protected him.
Now we seem to know, oh, there seemed to be something about
actually God's temple that was like this safe space for David
and, and whether he always needsthat actual physical protection.
(11:53):
So like this is his, this is hishappy place.
This is the one place in the world but he feels safe and
secure. And this request is, I want to
spend all of my days there like I want, I want to always be
here. I feel so good when I'm here and
so safe and so secure. But then you get to verse 6 and
it starts with this word vata. And now I think that that's a,
(12:18):
that's a really important pivot word, right?
That means the author is saying before something was the case
and now something is changing. And So what?
What happens now, now that you know, God has protected him and
he's he's sheltered him in his holy temple, Vata Yaruma shi'ala
vaisi vaisi Vaitai. My head has been lifted up above
(12:40):
my enemies surrounding me. Interesting that that language
of Yarum to lift up. That's the same language that we
had literally just two words previously at the end of the
last verse. It's so you, you've lifted me up
on a rock. Now he's saying you've lifted me
up above my enemies. It's like now that I've been
lifted up above my enemies, it'salmost like they don't really
matter so much anymore, right? They kind of fade away in my
(13:03):
rearview mirror. And now what am I going to do in
God's tent? Right?
Before, God's tent was my shelter, but now there's Bahub.
Oh, hello. I'm going to sacrifice in this
tent. Thanksgiving offerings.
Ashirah Vazamrad Lashem. I will sing, and I will make
melody to the Lord. As you said before, David is now
(13:24):
reaching this place of security.It unlocks something.
It's, it's like the, the naturalextension.
So I, I found my way here because I was scared and I
needed protection. But then while I'm here, I
realized that actually I don't really need to worry about them
because you're protecting me. And then, and then it's like,
well, while I'm here, oh, I can give offerings to you.
Oh, I can sing praises to you. And all of a sudden it starts to
(13:46):
create this brand new experience.
As I'm reading this, one of the things I'm, I'm tracking, which
may be relevant as we sort of hit that inflection point is
also just this evolution, which which you mentioned.
And we've also read of what thisspace is for Divina Mella,
right? At first, he's like, actually,
this is like a stronghold, right?
Moe's, it's a place that is, youknow, characterized by battle,
(14:08):
by adversarial relations, right by an inside and an outside that
have to be separate from each other.
But over, over the course of this, of this mismore, you see
it sort of transform first into the, the right and then into the
oh, hell. And just interesting thinking
about that for a second, how youneed the same tools in the
stronghold that you need in the oh hell, yeah, you need the
(14:29):
knife to protect yourself against the army, but also to
offer the Qurban. You need the shofar because the
shofar is a battle horn. But inside right really means
something different altogether, right?
It becomes actually part of that.
And so WTML doesn't just find himself in a Shem's house.
He finds himself in a Shem's house with all the tools he
needed to be close with the Shem.
And they, they transform as the to him, as this park of Dylan
(14:51):
transforms David's experience, it also transforms what seems to
be around him, what seems to be with him, right?
Taking it from that physical space to really that spiritual
space. Wow, that's that's amazing,
yeah. And that the language of Zechei
true, right? It's like it this it this double
entendre the true that the Ram'swho are in the the knife and
(15:12):
even the temple, the actual physical building itself, which
was a shield, right. And now is a a place of
connection, a process of opportunity.
We're going to skip over the next bit, where we get into the
technical side of the classic structure and instead jump
straight to verses 7 and 8. Here, David makes yet another
(15:34):
request of God. At first glance, it sounds a lot
like the plea we just read, but if we slow down and pay
attention, we'll notice something important.
There's a shift happening, a transition.
Shmashem koliakra the hanini vanini hear.
O Lord, when I cry aloud, have mercy on me.
Answer me the kamali be bakshufanai ET panetka Shim of a case in
(15:59):
your behalf. My heart says seek my face.
O Lord, I seek your face. So both the original request in
verse 4 and this request now in seven and eight, they use this
language of answering Asha alti anini a request and answer.
And they built to use that exactsame language of a case.
The thing that I I seek out it'sit seems to be this
(16:20):
transformation from the physicalto really the spiritual, right?
At first this house is this physical thing.
It's like it's got walls and it could protect me, right?
But now it's, it's really just, it's a it's not about what it
is, but what I can do there. It's about connection I can have
with God there and God's not just my protector.
He's someone I want to have a face to face relationship with,
(16:42):
right? In other words.
The shift here is from David asking about the bait, the
Hayfal, the the house, the hall,the physical place, to David
simply Speaking of God himself. At first he came to this
building because it gave him safety, a sense of physical
protection. But once he was there, something
(17:04):
changed. He realized it wasn't really the
building he wanted. It wasn't even the protection.
What David discovered sitting there in the security and
worshipping God was that what mattered most to him was simply
the connection with the divine. That's what his true soul was
searching for. We've seen this beautiful kind
(17:28):
of transition from David as a man of war and then who realized
I got to protect him in war to man who is seeking out this
intense spiritual connection with God, which all just begs
the question of you get to verse9 and David says I'll test their
Panakamani. Don't turn your face away from
(17:49):
me and you wonder what happened.Everything seems to be going so
perfect. It's this this perfect path
towards closeness of God. And then all of a sudden David's
like, no, God don't abandoned me.
Right. Just to clarify, we're almost
ready to answer the question of what happened to David's
confidence. But first, we're going to
revisit the end of them is more the moment things turn South and
(18:12):
try to pinpoint exactly what it was that David what is afraid
of? Then things will finally start
to make sense. I think to understand this, I
think we're going to come back to some of those phrases which
we we kind of avoided translating before, and which I
think if we pay a little bit more careful attention to, I
think these verses 9 to 12 are saying something actually
slightly different than we may have originally thought or then
(18:35):
the standard translations might try to render them.
That first phrase is from verse 9.
It's the second phrase there, altat baf abdaha, literally do not
turn thy servant in anger, right?
And as we pointed out before, right, that phrase, it doesn't
seem to make much sense by itself.
And that leaves most classical commentators to translate the
(18:56):
word tat from the word NATA to turn as to turn away from right,
as in do not turn away from me in anger.
Right, which which makes it a much easier read.
And it fits nicely with the phrase before of like don't hide
your face from me. But my my problem with that
translation is that it assumes that God had reason to be angry
(19:17):
at David. And while you can come up with
all sorts of reasons for why Godmay have been angry at him,
there's not really any indication in this first or in
the rest of them is more at all that God is angry at David.
More than that, right, David is exuding the confidence of
somebody who feels secure in that.
(19:38):
Relationship, right? So the truth is that if you take
a survey of the word talks and how it's used, particularly in
the book of Psalms, I think it indicates that it's actually
less of a turning away from and more of a turning to.
And I think particularly it's not even a God turning to, but
it might be the author himself toning towards something, right?
(19:58):
So take for example, thumbs 141 for I'll tat Li be the devara.
Do not turn my heart towards a bad thing, right?
And I think if you if you look at throughout the book of
Tehillim, sometimes it means Godturning to when it's God turning
his ear. And but then it usually has the
language of to turn your ear. But there are there are a number
(20:21):
of cases 441911936 where is the author himself?
Turning something, specifically turning his heart towards
something. And with with that as a model, I
think we might be able to reinterpret this verse to be
bequest by David, not to get lost in his own anger.
Don't turn me towards anger. No.
(20:46):
Why might David be asking that? What do we know about this
chapter of DLM that might explain why David would be
afraid and getting carried away in anger?
Well, this whole thing that's underlying his relationship with
his enemies. Right, right.
He just like, fought war after war, and it'd only be natural
for him to build up lots of anger.
(21:07):
But of course, the anger can. It can cloud judgement, right?
It can lead even the best peopleto do unspeakable things.
So maybe David's begging guide here, right?
After everything I've been through, please don't let me
succumb to anger. And you can understand how in
the context of his relationship with God, that would make sense
(21:29):
too. He knows that the anger that he
might experience after all of these wars though, could those
could be a real impetus in having this relationship with
God that he strives for so much.And I think this is actually
what the Radoc means when he comments on this.
I'll see. It's Neniv al Tadirini Basque
Halam has a shahim afikas. Let me to say, Baham, they don't
turn me and don't trouble me in the business of this world, for
(21:52):
they are angering to those who engage in them.
I think that's what Radaka is saying here is that David
realizes that some of his experiences might actually get
in the way of this amazing path towards closeness with God that
we've been following Him on. If you keep extending this
reading that we were doing before of the the Sword of War
(22:12):
turned to the sword of a Korban,right?
There's two features that we seeactually in David's story that
that sort of play with that verywell.
And I wonder if they come to here, right #1 Right.
David after the whole episode of.
But Sheva's is essentially punished or you would even say
cursed. The sword will never leave beat
David, right? Yeah.
And I think about Davida Melek, not only angry because of these
(22:37):
wars, which we have statements like from the Ramban, you know,
war naturally erodes, corrupts aperson's soul, can bring them to
these bad Meadow. But also David, to some degree
mad in himself, right? Natano Navi telling him when
you're stuck in the stronghold alone, it is you who you will
have to blank. So here's something really cool.
God gets mad at a lot of people in the off the language of off
(22:59):
all over the place. God's mad.
This person is not that person for sure.
Nowhere do we actually see God getting mad with the language of
off at David. Interesting.
Maybe you'd have reasons to, butGod doesn't.
Wow. But here's something cool based
on what you're saying, you know who does get mad at David?
David himself. Whoa, you're fair.
(23:20):
The only person whoever gets madat David and the only person
David ever gets mad at is actually himself.
And it's right in that story after the episode of of Bacheva.
Wow, rare and not time kind of presents him like this whole
parable of this rich man who stole this poor man's sheep.
And then David, he was bad and he gets mad at that hypothetical
rich man before eventually realizing that it's him.
(23:43):
And then he's he says Khatatzi. I have said wow.
That's amazing. And so I.
Think if we're if we're right about this, then it might
explain verse 12 as well is thatI'll teach Neni Ben Nephesh
Sarai. It literally don't give me with
the soul of my enemies. And so again, it's like a
confusing verse to translate right in a standard translation
interprets Nephesh soul to mean the desire.
(24:06):
Don't give me in to the desire of my enemies.
But again, it seems to fit the theme, but it's a stretch of a
translation because the word nafash comes up like hundreds of
times into naf, and it almost always means like the person,
the souls, a part of yourself. But if in verse 9 he suggested
(24:26):
that David isn't so much afraid of God abandoning him to his
enemies as he is afraid of God abandoning him to the darker
side of his own nature, then maybe here too, David's not
actually afraid of the enemies attacking him, as Matthews is
afraid of what this war will do to his soul.
(24:49):
Don't give my soul to become like the soul of my enemies.
And why? Because what does he say right
next? Kikat movie Ade shakur Hamas?
Because false witnesses and those who speak evil have risen
up against me. Don't let me be like them.
Don't let me stoop to that level.
So we can decide if this is trueor if this is a little bit of a
(25:11):
an altikri, as they say to purposefully misread it.
But it could have said Kamu a lie.
It could have said Kamu Nick D, right?
What does it say? Kamu V they're they coming.
V would be within me, right? It raises that up in me.
And before it was coming, a lie.They've risen up against me.
Now it's. In me.
(25:31):
Exactly. And look at the word that is
right before Sarai in verse 2. Sorry.
Wait, these people who these enemies who have come up to eat
my flesh right? Look at the word right before
Sarai in in verse 12 in Nephesh in Nephesh.
In my soul. That is this this transition
from the enemies posing a physical threat to the enemies
(25:55):
posing more of a moral threat. It's OK they they can't touch my
body, but like, what about my soul?
Well, now I'm really convinced. It's like sticks and stones
can't break my bones. Right, right.
But their. Words like those might actually
destroy me. Wow, it's interesting to think
for David again, thinking about it as sort of a spiritual
(26:15):
pathway, right as a spiritual journey.
The more David turns to God, notonly does it become more
vulnerable, but the more he actually becomes self aware and
self-conscious. It's not an external thing
anymore that never troubled David.
David is just as confident as hewas before that his enemies
won't physically hurt him. But now this new thing is rising
(26:37):
up in his heart that maybe this war, even if it hasn't
physically hardened, maybe it's actually corrupted his soul.
And so if you kind of just skim through these verses 9 through
12 again with with that understanding, let's let's try
(26:58):
to like to to reread it now. I'll just start panache.
I don't hide your face from me. I know, God, that you've
protected me physically, but I realize that I need more than
just physical protection. I need your closeness.
I'll toss. Don't let your servant turn off
towards anger, right? Without the presence of your
face, I don't trust that I'll have the strength to keep my
(27:22):
cool as a TI ET I'll teach Shaney valtasveny in aheyeshi.
Can you VV me azaruni vatinai azvani, right?
Like God, you've been like apparent to me, right?
You've, you've guided me. You've been there to comfort me
when I'm feeling emotional. You're all I have.
I would be a wreck without you. It's not enough for your parents
(27:44):
to be just like standing there fighting off enemies for you.
But you need your. You need your parent.
They're close to, to teach you, to guide you, to be your your
moral voice. Harenia Shamataka, teach me your
ways. I don't.
I don't just want your, your protection.
I want you to help me be a good person and nahini Berkley shore
(28:09):
the mansurai right? Guide me on the straight path
because of my adversaries. What would the adversaries have
to do with guiding him on a straight path, right?
Because it's it's them who threatened to pull David off the
path of God, right? And finally, Altukhini benefits
sarai Ki kamuvi Adie shakur of affair Hamas.
My enemies are liars and cheats.Don't let me stoop to their
(28:30):
level, right? Don't let my soul become like
theirs. And so I guess then the question
remains like, why is it that David is so unsure of himself in
the spiritual realm? What what happens when David
goes through that natural transition of God protecting him
and that that protection creating the space for him to to
(28:54):
then seek out more to seek out aspiritual relationship with God.
What is it at that point and hispursuit of a spiritual
relationship with God that makesthem all of a sudden be like,
oh, I don't know if I have this.I don't know if I can do this.
There are all of these things that might get in my way.
(29:15):
And I'm thinking about it as, asa journey of vulnerability,
right? As, as coming against the
vulnerability of the body, right?
It's when I'm secure physically that I even start to think about
this stuff, right? It's when I don't have to worry.
About any It's the luxury, right?
Yeah, right. And then that vulnerability,
that face to face encounter suddenly opens up something
else. And David, a different feeling,
(29:37):
a desire not to focus on the security and the safety, but
actually to focus on the the work that a person has to do on
themselves to say, this is really what I value.
This is really what I care about.
And the vulnerability to say, I don't want to lose this.
And I know that I could mess this up.
Yeah, I, I need your help, right?
(29:58):
Turning not just to to himself, but turning to the other,
turning to God and saying, I, I need your help to stay on this
path. I think just taking a cursory
look at David's life really supports this misma as well,
right? Because when it comes like the
physical battles, David is like a basically like a perfect
(30:18):
record. I mean, there, there are some
kind of temporary set back, but for the most part he's a a
extremely successful legendary warrior.
Just wins battle after battle after battle.
So his confidence in in verses one through 6, right, it's
fairly well founded, right, right.
And and worthy of, you know, singing to the to the Lord.
(30:41):
But when it comes to Debbie's spiritual life, I think it's a
different story. And honestly, Debbie makes some
pretty real mistakes from odd tosay that in his life that
actually do jeopardize his relationship with God.
I mean, you mentioned earlier the incident with Batsheva,
right? That's Samuels 2 chapters 11
through 12, right? Or maybe like the botched census
(31:05):
in chapter 24, right? His name, a couple.
He also suffers some really painful losses as a result of
some of those mistakes, right? The incident about Sheva, he
ends up losing the child out of that, his own son.
At some point, AB Shalom rebels against him.
But even though David defeats ABShalom in his rebellion, that
(31:27):
victory doesn't erase the pain of your own son rebelling
against you. And the list, I think, goes on
and on. It's easy to imagine, like just
based on the experience of this,of David's life, that he might
be afraid that that the moral strength and integrity that he
was had might slip away. And I think also even to keep
(31:51):
drawing it as this sort of straight line through David's
life, because both the precursorconvenience and the loss of his
son at Bathsheba occur in that same moment, right?
He directed that anger again, asas you pointed, I think it's
totally at himself. And you have to imagine a life
that is essentially marred spiritually by 1 action, even
(32:11):
though Hashem says, you know, you have another son and he's a
hoop it lie, right? That all of it comes back to
this one moment. You can imagine a person with
that kind of validation that this one moment has basically
screwed up your entire life because of your own failing.
You can imagine what that does to a person spiritually.
Yeah, right. What makes learning the story of
(32:38):
David so amazing and powerful and inspirational is that it's
really such a universal story. Like he's such a universal human
being and his his stories that they're so relatable.
And to me, it's a really relatable experience, right?
Especially thinking about the Yamuna and the High Holidays
that we're coming into right there.
There's these dual aspects of the High Holidays.
(33:01):
There's the the actual judgementDay and knowing that on this
day, God decides between life and death.
Like the truth is with Jeremy, how afraid are you of getting
the death sentence this year? Probably not enough.
Probably not. No, no, I'm probably not either,
but not at all, really. And.
I think the reason is because, well, number one, you know, odds
(33:21):
are in your favor, right? Just like I'm serious, you come
out alive. Statistically, I'm doing all
right, right? All of us are.
It's easy, I think relatively easy to believe in God's
physical protection, to believe that I'm going to survive any
attacks, to believe that I'll have food to eat.
(33:46):
But there's this other aspect ofthe holidays where it's like the
it's the highlight of the year spiritually.
It's the moment where we at least strive to come close to
God, to come closer to God than maybe we will any other time of
the year. Right?
And one of the things you're pointing out is that through
this confrontation, it inspires the self reflection.
(34:09):
And sometimes that self reflection brings up some.
And all of a sudden we do Rosh Hashanah.
We're all inspired, crowning Godour king and feeling this
closeness. And then we go into the I say,
you may Shuva. We go into Yom Kippur and we
start doing Vido I and we start confessing our sins or flagging
back and we're like, oh, shoot, there are a lot of things in my
way between me and my relationship with God.
(34:31):
And yeah, maybe I, maybe I trustthat God will provide me food
and maybe I can imagine God out of his mercy doing good things
for me physically. But do I have what it takes to
have a a relationship with them?It's almost David saying.
I'm not so worried about Rosh Hashanah, I'm more worried about
the day that. Comes after, say, for a.
Time. That's one thing.
(34:53):
What do I do with that time whenI have it?
That's a much harder question. Just a quick disclaimer before
we dive into this next section, which talks about the war
against Hamas. Sadly, what you're about to hear
feels just as relevant now as itdid when we first recorded it a
year ago. The topic of how we're running
this war has gotten heated, evencontentious, in recent months.
(35:17):
And I want to be clear, I'm not trying to weigh in on any
specific political issue or controversy.
What I do believe is that the core point I made a year ago
still stands. When this war is finally over,
and God willing, that day will come soon.
Once we've healed our wounds andcelebrated our victories, there
(35:38):
will come a time when we'll needto stop and really look in the
mirror to take stock of how thiswar has affected us.
Because it's impossible for it not to.
Back to the tape, I want to just.
Before we end, just reflect for a minute because when I was
(35:59):
reading this the first time and thinking about this could not
help but thinking about the war in Israel right now.
Because right when it comes to like that, the physical war, I
don't want to say we're perfectly protected by God
because of course it's not 100% true.
A lot of individual souls have been lost.
But as a nation, at least if we're going to kind of zoom out
(36:22):
to that level, Hamas doesn't really stand a chance, right?
It's it's easy to read the Koval.
I'm Mary IMA koala pasai Taiba Valley hima hashmua la follow.
They're just going to stumble and fall before us.
And it's easy to say, you know what, like I'm not really afraid
right now, at least for the physical survival of us as a
(36:42):
people. Again, not to diminish
individual losses, but one of the things we've learned is
especially in this war, this is this whole other side, the war.
There's a spiritual war. There's the war of, of public
opinion on social media. And boy, the line that could
(37:02):
come over a day Shekhar of the affair.
Hamas, you got a language by theway, of Hamas of like evil.
Those who, who are false witnesses.
Those are our enemies, right? They, they have false witnesses.
They're people who were willing to just lie straight through
their teeth. Right.
(37:23):
And the challenge for us is, canwe go through a war like that
and not be dragged down into thedirt of those games?
Can we really stop our own angerfrom getting the best of
ourselves and leading us to do things that we wouldn't want to
do? Sure, we're going to survive
physically in this war, But the real question that I think a lot
(37:45):
of people are asking is can we survive morally?
Can we maintain our moral integrity?
OK, I know that's a heavy question, a tough one, but I
think the intuitive answer, the answer that the mismore itself
is offering us is yes, absolutely yes.
(38:07):
David insists on it. There is hope.
Mismore finishes luleja amanti lero petou vashem barrettes
kayim. Had I not believed that I would
see the goodness of God in the land of the living.
Kaveh al Hashem, Kazakh via mates libefa, the Kaveh al
(38:27):
Hashem put hope in the Lord. Be courageous and strong and put
hope in the Lord, and listen to that language.
Kazakh via matz. Be strong and courageous.
That's war language. It echoes the charge in safer
Yahushua, the book of Joshua. It's as if David was saying I
(38:49):
was courageous on the physical battlefield.
Now it's time to summon that same courage on the spiritual
one. That's avo for us.
It's the spiritual battlefield. We're all soldiers and our
prayer is simple. Hashem, show us your way.
(39:10):
All right. That's the end of part.
One, but we're. Really only just getting
started. Don't forget to hit that follow
button on whatever app you're listening on and keep an eye out
in your podcast feed for Part 2 tomorrow.
Well, we'll dive into this specific moment in David's life
that may have prompted this prayer.
And then in Part 3, we'll tacklethat big question, did David's
(39:31):
parents really abandoned him? We'll also look back at an
earlier story in Tanakh that mayhave inspired this entire Miss
Moore. We have so much more to.
Unpack. Thanks for learning with us and
we'll see you in Part 2.
It's hard to believe, but it's officially been one year since
launching this podcast, and whata year it's been.
The feedback has been inspiring,the audience has been growing,
and along the way we've had the privilege of hosting some of the
biggest names in the world of TANF.
But through all of it, one of myfavorite episodes is still the
(00:23):
very first one. We did our three-part miniseries
on the Hilim Hoff Zion 27. That's Ledavid Hashem Ori, and
with Elle here again, it feels only right to bring it back.
And now we're not just hitting rewind.
That first episode though? Fascinating was also by far the
(00:44):
most textual and complex. Episode we've ever done.
Perfect for learning at a desk, not.
So perfect if you're say. Merging onto the highway.
So what you're listening to now is a completely re edited
version. We trimmed some things down, we
recorded some sections and streamline the structure to make
(01:06):
sure it's something you can enjoy.
Wherever you are. While still keeping the themes,
the heart, and the emotional punch of the original version.
If you're craving the full deep dive, you can scroll back to the
very beginning of this podcast feed and find the original
series there. Or if you'd rather read.
You'll also find an essay version linked to right in the.
Episode Description. Otherwise, buckle up and let's
(01:26):
jump into La David. Welcome to the very first
episode of Tehalem Unveiled. This is Ari Levison.
A number of Jeremy. And today we're going to talk
(01:47):
about the song of the summer. The song goes every summer.
The number one pop hit. It's the Hillam 27 Club Zion,
the David Hashem Ori. We say it every year from
beginning of Rosh Koda Shallow and then continue to cite it
ideally twice a day for the nextalmost two months.
(02:11):
Yeah, I think we end up saying it over 100 times.
No it all. Yeah, it must be it.
Has some really beautiful lines.Probably inspired more songs
than any other Parakov Talem, but how well do we really
understand it? That's all.
What's the progression from verses 1 to 14, right?
What's the overall message? I mean, if I would ask you,
(02:33):
what's the overall message? I would say we want Hashem to
protect us. We want to be close to Hashem.
Hashem is, we say, this sort of stronghold, right?
Hashem is keeping us safe, says David.
And he also says Hashem is my palace where I want to be,
right? That seems to be for me some of
the one of the main. And even those, those seem like
two different things, right? Do I want to just be in God's
palace where I'm basking, beholding his delight like
(02:56):
Lakhzoth, Panama sham? Or am I hiding from my enemies
there like we see in the first few verses?
What about when David says Eviveand me as Avuni, like my parents
have abandoned me? What the heck does David mean
there? I don't remember that part of
the story when David's parents abandoned him.
Yeah, it doesn't come to mind. I think the the answers to these
(03:17):
questions, which we're going to attempt to explore are what make
this mismore into so much more than a collection of beautiful
one liners, bizarre Hashem. I think that our analysis is
going to unveil an incredibly deep and I think really heart
wrenching story. So the plan is this week we're
(03:38):
going to focus on the progression from the beginning
to the end of the Mismar, and they just attempt to understand
it through the broad themes of David's life, say like the first
level, just trying to really understand what this meant
someone was talking about. Next week I want to try to
identify the exact moment in David's life that he may have
written this or that this may bewritten about.
(03:58):
As we said in the intro, it's all about getting into W twos at
a particular place and time. So that's what we're going to
try to do next week. And in the following week, I'm
going to look at intertextual parallels to different stories
from elsewhere in TANF that I think David is thinking about as
he's writing this, and I think he might actually be drawing
strength and inspiration from. So I hope you join us on this
(04:19):
journey. Let's jump in.
Yola. La David, as we said, that's
going to be really. Important, right?
The core is everything that we're about to read has to be
sort of put into David's mouth. Like you're saying, read back
into and against David's life. Yeah.
I think the first step in analyzing any chapter of
(04:41):
Tehillim is to understand just the basic building blocks, the
pieces of it. I think that this chapter really
has three main blocks, and then what I would call like an outro.
So let's start with that first block, the first 3 verses.
Le davida shimuri vishi mimira Hashem mehoushayai of David.
The Lord is my light and my help.
(05:02):
Whom should I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my
life. Whom should I dread?
Bikrova, Lymer EM Lehol. EP Sarai Sarai.
Vo ivaili hamacha schluven afaluWhen evil men assail me to
devour my flesh, it is they, my foes and my enemies who stumble
and fall. Inter Kanea alai mahane lo Yi
(05:23):
rally be Inter Kumalai Milhama bezotta Nevoter.
Should an army besiege me, my heart would have No Fear.
Should war beset me still, wouldI be confident?
Each of these clauses are sayingvery very similar things and
just different language. All right, 2025, Ari jumping in
to move. Things along a bit.
The main thing we need to take away from these first 3 verses
(05:46):
is the image of David as this powerful warrior standing
confidently over his enemies because he knows that God has
got his back. God is his, my, O's, his
stronghold, He, she, my salvation.
Now we're going to circle back to verse 5 to 8 in a minute.
But before that, I actually wantto skip ahead to the third
(06:08):
block, verses 9 through 12, basically the end of the Mizmar.
And here's why. On the surface, these verses
feel really similar to the opening, like we're clearly
meant to compare them. But when we do, we'll realize
that they actually couldn't be more different.
Dhillon clearly wants us to. Compare and.
(06:30):
Contrast the beginning and the end.
Of this Miss Moore. So let's do that now.
Let's put them side by side and see the journey that this Miss
Moore is taking us on. And from there, we'll start to
really appreciate the role that the central part of her Miss
Moore, that middle section, is doing in holding this entire
thing together. Verse 9 and 10 read Altastair
(06:52):
Panettra Mimani, don't hide yourface for me.
Altat AF of the ha. Literally don't turn your
servant in anger. And we'll come back and try to
translate and explain what that means later.
Ezrati hayita, you have been my help.
I'll teach Cheney Altazveny Elohayishi, do not abandon me,
(07:13):
Do not forsake me. O God of my salvation, Ki Aviv
EMI azavuni vadonaya asveny. Because my father and my mother
have forsaken me. But the Lord will take me up.
Notice how this section begins. David calls God ye she, my
salvation. That's the same term we saw back
in the very first verse of the Mizmar.
(07:35):
But wow, what a difference. Back then, David radiated
confidence, unshakable and fearless.
Here he's begging, pleading. Don't abandoned me.
Don't forsake me. What happened?
If you think back to those opening verses, right after
David's declaration of strength,the focus then shifted to his
(07:58):
enemies. There he had No Fear.
His enemies stumbled and fell before him.
But now, Now it's not the enemies who are stumbling.
It's David himself who is afraidthat he's lost the way.
Verse 11 continues. Ho reni adonai dharkefa unafrini
bioref mishor laman shararai. Teach me, O Lord, your way, and
(08:19):
lead me in the right path for the sake of those who watch me.
Instead of the enemies tripping over themselves, David begs God
to study his own steps to keep him on a straight path in spite
of his enemies. And remember how that first
section ended with the enemies rising up Camus against him?
At that point, David didn't blink.
(08:40):
But here in verse 12, the next verse in our second-half is the
same language, the same enemies rising up Kamu.
But this time David seems shakento his core.
Kikamu V Ade shakur via fair Hamas.
Because false witnesses have risen up against me and those
who speak evil. So we're left with this tension.
(09:03):
The Mizmour begins and ends withthe same structure, the same
enemies, even the same language,but it feels like a completely
different world. Something happened in verses 5
through 8, something that shook David to his core.
And that's exactly what we're going to explore today.
Quick favor before we keep going.
(09:24):
If this episode is helping you connect to La David and you're
looking for more, tap the followor subscribe button on whatever
app you're listening on so the next episodes land right in your
feet. OK, back to the central section
of our Miss Moore, the key to understanding the vanishing of
David's confidence. So, so let's let's look at that
middle section now really the pivot of this whole thing.
(09:46):
Remember the first 3 verses, we're all talking about David's
confident successes in war, how his enemies stand no chance
against him. Now, if you know, you just had
to forget everything you know about about this Miss Moore and
just imagine where he's going togo next.
And wiping it clean. Really.
Like what? What would you expect him to say
next? More on this theme.
(10:06):
Right, right, probably more on this theme, like more about his
energy defeating or maybe this would be a good point to like
pivot and you know, thank God for all these things that he
just talked about God doing for him, right, asking for.
It for other people think of allkinds of things.
You'd be pretty crazy to suggestthat David would start talking
about having a chill sesh at God's house.
(10:27):
Right. And yet, that's exactly what he
does. Like all of a sudden, really out
of nowhere, he makes this request.
Hmm, very interesting, right? A hatch ultimate Hashem ottava
kesh shivti bevetashem kohya meshaya.
One thing I ask of the Lord only, that do I seek to live in
(10:47):
the House of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon
the beauty of the Lord, to frequent God's temple?
Why is he making this request out of nowhere?
So I think that the next verse, verse 5, which begins with key
because I think seems to tell uswhere this request is coming
from. Quits Benini Bisuka by Yomra A
Yes, Irene Besetter. Oh, hello, Bitsuya Romani.
(11:10):
God will shelter me in God's pavilion on an evil day.
Grant me the protection of God'stent.
Raise me high upon a rock. Why is it that David wants to
sit in God's house the all the days of his life?
It it really is maybe the stronghold.
Yeah. It really is the place where
where David is safe. David has a certain interest in
(11:31):
sitting there. It's not just that he would get
to be with Hashem, which would be amazing, it also happens to
be this ol of Hashem is also a place that functions as a
stronghold against David's enemies.
Yeah, Before we didn't know how God protected David.
He just said that God protected him.
Now we seem to know, oh, there seemed to be something about
actually God's temple that was like this safe space for David
and, and whether he always needsthat actual physical protection.
(11:53):
So like this is his, this is hishappy place.
This is the one place in the world but he feels safe and
secure. And this request is, I want to
spend all of my days there like I want, I want to always be
here. I feel so good when I'm here and
so safe and so secure. But then you get to verse 6 and
it starts with this word vata. And now I think that that's a,
(12:18):
that's a really important pivot word, right?
That means the author is saying before something was the case
and now something is changing. And So what?
What happens now, now that you know, God has protected him and
he's he's sheltered him in his holy temple, Vata Yaruma shi'ala
vaisi vaisi Vaitai. My head has been lifted up above
(12:40):
my enemies surrounding me. Interesting that that language
of Yarum to lift up. That's the same language that we
had literally just two words previously at the end of the
last verse. It's so you, you've lifted me up
on a rock. Now he's saying you've lifted me
up above my enemies. It's like now that I've been
lifted up above my enemies, it'salmost like they don't really
matter so much anymore, right? They kind of fade away in my
(13:03):
rearview mirror. And now what am I going to do in
God's tent? Right?
Before, God's tent was my shelter, but now there's Bahub.
Oh, hello. I'm going to sacrifice in this
tent. Thanksgiving offerings.
Ashirah Vazamrad Lashem. I will sing, and I will make
melody to the Lord. As you said before, David is now
(13:24):
reaching this place of security.It unlocks something.
It's, it's like the, the naturalextension.
So I, I found my way here because I was scared and I
needed protection. But then while I'm here, I
realized that actually I don't really need to worry about them
because you're protecting me. And then, and then it's like,
well, while I'm here, oh, I can give offerings to you.
Oh, I can sing praises to you. And all of a sudden it starts to
(13:46):
create this brand new experience.
As I'm reading this, one of the things I'm, I'm tracking, which
may be relevant as we sort of hit that inflection point is
also just this evolution, which which you mentioned.
And we've also read of what thisspace is for Divina Mella,
right? At first, he's like, actually,
this is like a stronghold, right?
Moe's, it's a place that is, youknow, characterized by battle,
(14:08):
by adversarial relations, right by an inside and an outside that
have to be separate from each other.
But over, over the course of this, of this mismore, you see
it sort of transform first into the, the right and then into the
oh, hell. And just interesting thinking
about that for a second, how youneed the same tools in the
stronghold that you need in the oh hell, yeah, you need the
(14:29):
knife to protect yourself against the army, but also to
offer the Qurban. You need the shofar because the
shofar is a battle horn. But inside right really means
something different altogether, right?
It becomes actually part of that.
And so WTML doesn't just find himself in a Shem's house.
He finds himself in a Shem's house with all the tools he
needed to be close with the Shem.
And they, they transform as the to him, as this park of Dylan
(14:51):
transforms David's experience, it also transforms what seems to
be around him, what seems to be with him, right?
Taking it from that physical space to really that spiritual
space. Wow, that's that's amazing,
yeah. And that the language of Zechei
true, right? It's like it this it this double
entendre the true that the Ram'swho are in the the knife and
(15:12):
even the temple, the actual physical building itself, which
was a shield, right. And now is a a place of
connection, a process of opportunity.
We're going to skip over the next bit, where we get into the
technical side of the classic structure and instead jump
straight to verses 7 and 8. Here, David makes yet another
(15:34):
request of God. At first glance, it sounds a lot
like the plea we just read, but if we slow down and pay
attention, we'll notice something important.
There's a shift happening, a transition.
Shmashem koliakra the hanini vanini hear.
O Lord, when I cry aloud, have mercy on me.
Answer me the kamali be bakshufanai ET panetka Shim of a case in
(15:59):
your behalf. My heart says seek my face.
O Lord, I seek your face. So both the original request in
verse 4 and this request now in seven and eight, they use this
language of answering Asha alti anini a request and answer.
And they built to use that exactsame language of a case.
The thing that I I seek out it'sit seems to be this
(16:20):
transformation from the physicalto really the spiritual, right?
At first this house is this physical thing.
It's like it's got walls and it could protect me, right?
But now it's, it's really just, it's a it's not about what it
is, but what I can do there. It's about connection I can have
with God there and God's not just my protector.
He's someone I want to have a face to face relationship with,
(16:42):
right? In other words.
The shift here is from David asking about the bait, the
Hayfal, the the house, the hall,the physical place, to David
simply Speaking of God himself. At first he came to this
building because it gave him safety, a sense of physical
protection. But once he was there, something
(17:04):
changed. He realized it wasn't really the
building he wanted. It wasn't even the protection.
What David discovered sitting there in the security and
worshipping God was that what mattered most to him was simply
the connection with the divine. That's what his true soul was
searching for. We've seen this beautiful kind
(17:28):
of transition from David as a man of war and then who realized
I got to protect him in war to man who is seeking out this
intense spiritual connection with God, which all just begs
the question of you get to verse9 and David says I'll test their
Panakamani. Don't turn your face away from
(17:49):
me and you wonder what happened.Everything seems to be going so
perfect. It's this this perfect path
towards closeness of God. And then all of a sudden David's
like, no, God don't abandoned me.
Right. Just to clarify, we're almost
ready to answer the question of what happened to David's
confidence. But first, we're going to
revisit the end of them is more the moment things turn South and
(18:12):
try to pinpoint exactly what it was that David what is afraid
of? Then things will finally start
to make sense. I think to understand this, I
think we're going to come back to some of those phrases which
we we kind of avoided translating before, and which I
think if we pay a little bit more careful attention to, I
think these verses 9 to 12 are saying something actually
slightly different than we may have originally thought or then
(18:35):
the standard translations might try to render them.
That first phrase is from verse 9.
It's the second phrase there, altat baf abdaha, literally do not
turn thy servant in anger, right?
And as we pointed out before, right, that phrase, it doesn't
seem to make much sense by itself.
And that leaves most classical commentators to translate the
(18:56):
word tat from the word NATA to turn as to turn away from right,
as in do not turn away from me in anger.
Right, which which makes it a much easier read.
And it fits nicely with the phrase before of like don't hide
your face from me. But my my problem with that
translation is that it assumes that God had reason to be angry
(19:17):
at David. And while you can come up with
all sorts of reasons for why Godmay have been angry at him,
there's not really any indication in this first or in
the rest of them is more at all that God is angry at David.
More than that, right, David is exuding the confidence of
somebody who feels secure in that.
(19:38):
Relationship, right? So the truth is that if you take
a survey of the word talks and how it's used, particularly in
the book of Psalms, I think it indicates that it's actually
less of a turning away from and more of a turning to.
And I think particularly it's not even a God turning to, but
it might be the author himself toning towards something, right?
(19:58):
So take for example, thumbs 141 for I'll tat Li be the devara.
Do not turn my heart towards a bad thing, right?
And I think if you if you look at throughout the book of
Tehillim, sometimes it means Godturning to when it's God turning
his ear. And but then it usually has the
language of to turn your ear. But there are there are a number
(20:21):
of cases 441911936 where is the author himself?
Turning something, specifically turning his heart towards
something. And with with that as a model, I
think we might be able to reinterpret this verse to be
bequest by David, not to get lost in his own anger.
Don't turn me towards anger. No.
(20:46):
Why might David be asking that? What do we know about this
chapter of DLM that might explain why David would be
afraid and getting carried away in anger?
Well, this whole thing that's underlying his relationship with
his enemies. Right, right.
He just like, fought war after war, and it'd only be natural
for him to build up lots of anger.
(21:07):
But of course, the anger can. It can cloud judgement, right?
It can lead even the best peopleto do unspeakable things.
So maybe David's begging guide here, right?
After everything I've been through, please don't let me
succumb to anger. And you can understand how in
the context of his relationship with God, that would make sense
(21:29):
too. He knows that the anger that he
might experience after all of these wars though, could those
could be a real impetus in having this relationship with
God that he strives for so much.And I think this is actually
what the Radoc means when he comments on this.
I'll see. It's Neniv al Tadirini Basque
Halam has a shahim afikas. Let me to say, Baham, they don't
turn me and don't trouble me in the business of this world, for
(21:52):
they are angering to those who engage in them.
I think that's what Radaka is saying here is that David
realizes that some of his experiences might actually get
in the way of this amazing path towards closeness with God that
we've been following Him on. If you keep extending this
reading that we were doing before of the the Sword of War
(22:12):
turned to the sword of a Korban,right?
There's two features that we seeactually in David's story that
that sort of play with that verywell.
And I wonder if they come to here, right #1 Right.
David after the whole episode of.
But Sheva's is essentially punished or you would even say
cursed. The sword will never leave beat
David, right? Yeah.
And I think about Davida Melek, not only angry because of these
(22:37):
wars, which we have statements like from the Ramban, you know,
war naturally erodes, corrupts aperson's soul, can bring them to
these bad Meadow. But also David, to some degree
mad in himself, right? Natano Navi telling him when
you're stuck in the stronghold alone, it is you who you will
have to blank. So here's something really cool.
God gets mad at a lot of people in the off the language of off
(22:59):
all over the place. God's mad.
This person is not that person for sure.
Nowhere do we actually see God getting mad with the language of
off at David. Interesting.
Maybe you'd have reasons to, butGod doesn't.
Wow. But here's something cool based
on what you're saying, you know who does get mad at David?
David himself. Whoa, you're fair.
(23:20):
The only person whoever gets madat David and the only person
David ever gets mad at is actually himself.
And it's right in that story after the episode of of Bacheva.
Wow, rare and not time kind of presents him like this whole
parable of this rich man who stole this poor man's sheep.
And then David, he was bad and he gets mad at that hypothetical
rich man before eventually realizing that it's him.
(23:43):
And then he's he says Khatatzi. I have said wow.
That's amazing. And so I.
Think if we're if we're right about this, then it might
explain verse 12 as well is thatI'll teach Neni Ben Nephesh
Sarai. It literally don't give me with
the soul of my enemies. And so again, it's like a
confusing verse to translate right in a standard translation
interprets Nephesh soul to mean the desire.
(24:06):
Don't give me in to the desire of my enemies.
But again, it seems to fit the theme, but it's a stretch of a
translation because the word nafash comes up like hundreds of
times into naf, and it almost always means like the person,
the souls, a part of yourself. But if in verse 9 he suggested
(24:26):
that David isn't so much afraid of God abandoning him to his
enemies as he is afraid of God abandoning him to the darker
side of his own nature, then maybe here too, David's not
actually afraid of the enemies attacking him, as Matthews is
afraid of what this war will do to his soul.
(24:49):
Don't give my soul to become like the soul of my enemies.
And why? Because what does he say right
next? Kikat movie Ade shakur Hamas?
Because false witnesses and those who speak evil have risen
up against me. Don't let me be like them.
Don't let me stoop to that level.
So we can decide if this is trueor if this is a little bit of a
(25:11):
an altikri, as they say to purposefully misread it.
But it could have said Kamu a lie.
It could have said Kamu Nick D, right?
What does it say? Kamu V they're they coming.
V would be within me, right? It raises that up in me.
And before it was coming, a lie.They've risen up against me.
Now it's. In me.
(25:31):
Exactly. And look at the word that is
right before Sarai in verse 2. Sorry.
Wait, these people who these enemies who have come up to eat
my flesh right? Look at the word right before
Sarai in in verse 12 in Nephesh in Nephesh.
In my soul. That is this this transition
from the enemies posing a physical threat to the enemies
(25:55):
posing more of a moral threat. It's OK they they can't touch my
body, but like, what about my soul?
Well, now I'm really convinced. It's like sticks and stones
can't break my bones. Right, right.
But their. Words like those might actually
destroy me. Wow, it's interesting to think
for David again, thinking about it as sort of a spiritual
(26:15):
pathway, right as a spiritual journey.
The more David turns to God, notonly does it become more
vulnerable, but the more he actually becomes self aware and
self-conscious. It's not an external thing
anymore that never troubled David.
David is just as confident as hewas before that his enemies
won't physically hurt him. But now this new thing is rising
(26:37):
up in his heart that maybe this war, even if it hasn't
physically hardened, maybe it's actually corrupted his soul.
And so if you kind of just skim through these verses 9 through
12 again with with that understanding, let's let's try
(26:58):
to like to to reread it now. I'll just start panache.
I don't hide your face from me. I know, God, that you've
protected me physically, but I realize that I need more than
just physical protection. I need your closeness.
I'll toss. Don't let your servant turn off
towards anger, right? Without the presence of your
face, I don't trust that I'll have the strength to keep my
(27:22):
cool as a TI ET I'll teach Shaney valtasveny in aheyeshi.
Can you VV me azaruni vatinai azvani, right?
Like God, you've been like apparent to me, right?
You've, you've guided me. You've been there to comfort me
when I'm feeling emotional. You're all I have.
I would be a wreck without you. It's not enough for your parents
(27:44):
to be just like standing there fighting off enemies for you.
But you need your. You need your parent.
They're close to, to teach you, to guide you, to be your your
moral voice. Harenia Shamataka, teach me your
ways. I don't.
I don't just want your, your protection.
I want you to help me be a good person and nahini Berkley shore
(28:09):
the mansurai right? Guide me on the straight path
because of my adversaries. What would the adversaries have
to do with guiding him on a straight path, right?
Because it's it's them who threatened to pull David off the
path of God, right? And finally, Altukhini benefits
sarai Ki kamuvi Adie shakur of affair Hamas.
My enemies are liars and cheats.Don't let me stoop to their
(28:30):
level, right? Don't let my soul become like
theirs. And so I guess then the question
remains like, why is it that David is so unsure of himself in
the spiritual realm? What what happens when David
goes through that natural transition of God protecting him
and that that protection creating the space for him to to
(28:54):
then seek out more to seek out aspiritual relationship with God.
What is it at that point and hispursuit of a spiritual
relationship with God that makesthem all of a sudden be like,
oh, I don't know if I have this.I don't know if I can do this.
There are all of these things that might get in my way.
(29:15):
And I'm thinking about it as, asa journey of vulnerability,
right? As, as coming against the
vulnerability of the body, right?
It's when I'm secure physically that I even start to think about
this stuff, right? It's when I don't have to worry.
About any It's the luxury, right?
Yeah, right. And then that vulnerability,
that face to face encounter suddenly opens up something
else. And David, a different feeling,
(29:37):
a desire not to focus on the security and the safety, but
actually to focus on the the work that a person has to do on
themselves to say, this is really what I value.
This is really what I care about.
And the vulnerability to say, I don't want to lose this.
And I know that I could mess this up.
Yeah, I, I need your help, right?
(29:58):
Turning not just to to himself, but turning to the other,
turning to God and saying, I, I need your help to stay on this
path. I think just taking a cursory
look at David's life really supports this misma as well,
right? Because when it comes like the
physical battles, David is like a basically like a perfect
(30:18):
record. I mean, there, there are some
kind of temporary set back, but for the most part he's a a
extremely successful legendary warrior.
Just wins battle after battle after battle.
So his confidence in in verses one through 6, right, it's
fairly well founded, right, right.
And and worthy of, you know, singing to the to the Lord.
(30:41):
But when it comes to Debbie's spiritual life, I think it's a
different story. And honestly, Debbie makes some
pretty real mistakes from odd tosay that in his life that
actually do jeopardize his relationship with God.
I mean, you mentioned earlier the incident with Batsheva,
right? That's Samuels 2 chapters 11
through 12, right? Or maybe like the botched census
(31:05):
in chapter 24, right? His name, a couple.
He also suffers some really painful losses as a result of
some of those mistakes, right? The incident about Sheva, he
ends up losing the child out of that, his own son.
At some point, AB Shalom rebels against him.
But even though David defeats ABShalom in his rebellion, that
(31:27):
victory doesn't erase the pain of your own son rebelling
against you. And the list, I think, goes on
and on. It's easy to imagine, like just
based on the experience of this,of David's life, that he might
be afraid that that the moral strength and integrity that he
was had might slip away. And I think also even to keep
(31:51):
drawing it as this sort of straight line through David's
life, because both the precursorconvenience and the loss of his
son at Bathsheba occur in that same moment, right?
He directed that anger again, asas you pointed, I think it's
totally at himself. And you have to imagine a life
that is essentially marred spiritually by 1 action, even
(32:11):
though Hashem says, you know, you have another son and he's a
hoop it lie, right? That all of it comes back to
this one moment. You can imagine a person with
that kind of validation that this one moment has basically
screwed up your entire life because of your own failing.
You can imagine what that does to a person spiritually.
Yeah, right. What makes learning the story of
(32:38):
David so amazing and powerful and inspirational is that it's
really such a universal story. Like he's such a universal human
being and his his stories that they're so relatable.
And to me, it's a really relatable experience, right?
Especially thinking about the Yamuna and the High Holidays
that we're coming into right there.
There's these dual aspects of the High Holidays.
(33:01):
There's the the actual judgementDay and knowing that on this
day, God decides between life and death.
Like the truth is with Jeremy, how afraid are you of getting
the death sentence this year? Probably not enough.
Probably not. No, no, I'm probably not either,
but not at all, really. And.
I think the reason is because, well, number one, you know, odds
(33:21):
are in your favor, right? Just like I'm serious, you come
out alive. Statistically, I'm doing all
right, right? All of us are.
It's easy, I think relatively easy to believe in God's
physical protection, to believe that I'm going to survive any
attacks, to believe that I'll have food to eat.
(33:46):
But there's this other aspect ofthe holidays where it's like the
it's the highlight of the year spiritually.
It's the moment where we at least strive to come close to
God, to come closer to God than maybe we will any other time of
the year. Right?
And one of the things you're pointing out is that through
this confrontation, it inspires the self reflection.
(34:09):
And sometimes that self reflection brings up some.
And all of a sudden we do Rosh Hashanah.
We're all inspired, crowning Godour king and feeling this
closeness. And then we go into the I say,
you may Shuva. We go into Yom Kippur and we
start doing Vido I and we start confessing our sins or flagging
back and we're like, oh, shoot, there are a lot of things in my
way between me and my relationship with God.
(34:31):
And yeah, maybe I, maybe I trustthat God will provide me food
and maybe I can imagine God out of his mercy doing good things
for me physically. But do I have what it takes to
have a a relationship with them?It's almost David saying.
I'm not so worried about Rosh Hashanah, I'm more worried about
the day that. Comes after, say, for a.
Time. That's one thing.
(34:53):
What do I do with that time whenI have it?
That's a much harder question. Just a quick disclaimer before
we dive into this next section, which talks about the war
against Hamas. Sadly, what you're about to hear
feels just as relevant now as itdid when we first recorded it a
year ago. The topic of how we're running
this war has gotten heated, evencontentious, in recent months.
(35:17):
And I want to be clear, I'm not trying to weigh in on any
specific political issue or controversy.
What I do believe is that the core point I made a year ago
still stands. When this war is finally over,
and God willing, that day will come soon.
Once we've healed our wounds andcelebrated our victories, there
(35:38):
will come a time when we'll needto stop and really look in the
mirror to take stock of how thiswar has affected us.
Because it's impossible for it not to.
Back to the tape, I want to just.
Before we end, just reflect for a minute because when I was
(35:59):
reading this the first time and thinking about this could not
help but thinking about the war in Israel right now.
Because right when it comes to like that, the physical war, I
don't want to say we're perfectly protected by God
because of course it's not 100% true.
A lot of individual souls have been lost.
But as a nation, at least if we're going to kind of zoom out
(36:22):
to that level, Hamas doesn't really stand a chance, right?
It's it's easy to read the Koval.
I'm Mary IMA koala pasai Taiba Valley hima hashmua la follow.
They're just going to stumble and fall before us.
And it's easy to say, you know what, like I'm not really afraid
right now, at least for the physical survival of us as a
(36:42):
people. Again, not to diminish
individual losses, but one of the things we've learned is
especially in this war, this is this whole other side, the war.
There's a spiritual war. There's the war of, of public
opinion on social media. And boy, the line that could
(37:02):
come over a day Shekhar of the affair.
Hamas, you got a language by theway, of Hamas of like evil.
Those who, who are false witnesses.
Those are our enemies, right? They, they have false witnesses.
They're people who were willing to just lie straight through
their teeth. Right.
(37:23):
And the challenge for us is, canwe go through a war like that
and not be dragged down into thedirt of those games?
Can we really stop our own angerfrom getting the best of
ourselves and leading us to do things that we wouldn't want to
do? Sure, we're going to survive
physically in this war, But the real question that I think a lot
(37:45):
of people are asking is can we survive morally?
Can we maintain our moral integrity?
OK, I know that's a heavy question, a tough one, but I
think the intuitive answer, the answer that the mismore itself
is offering us is yes, absolutely yes.
(38:07):
David insists on it. There is hope.
Mismore finishes luleja amanti lero petou vashem barrettes
kayim. Had I not believed that I would
see the goodness of God in the land of the living.
Kaveh al Hashem, Kazakh via mates libefa, the Kaveh al
(38:27):
Hashem put hope in the Lord. Be courageous and strong and put
hope in the Lord, and listen to that language.
Kazakh via matz. Be strong and courageous.
That's war language. It echoes the charge in safer
Yahushua, the book of Joshua. It's as if David was saying I
(38:49):
was courageous on the physical battlefield.
Now it's time to summon that same courage on the spiritual
one. That's avo for us.
It's the spiritual battlefield. We're all soldiers and our
prayer is simple. Hashem, show us your way.
(39:10):
All right. That's the end of part.
One, but we're. Really only just getting
started. Don't forget to hit that follow
button on whatever app you're listening on and keep an eye out
in your podcast feed for Part 2 tomorrow.
Well, we'll dive into this specific moment in David's life
that may have prompted this prayer.
And then in Part 3, we'll tacklethat big question, did David's
(39:31):
parents really abandoned him? We'll also look back at an
earlier story in Tanakh that mayhave inspired this entire Miss
Moore. We have so much more to.
Unpack. Thanks for learning with us and
we'll see you in Part 2.
Popular Podcasts
NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal
Gregg Rosenthal and a rotating crew of elite NFL Media co-hosts, including Patrick Claybon, Colleen Wolfe, Steve Wyche, Nick Shook and Jourdan Rodrigue of The Athletic get you caught up daily on all the NFL news and analysis you need to be smarter and funnier than your friends.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com